one top senator tells us straight up. the fbi screwed up before the boston bombings. i'm jake tapper and this is "the lead." gunfire in the streets of watertown. we only had to rely on descriptions of the first showdown with the suspects until now. fresh pictures show the battle which only one suspect would leave alive. home after an act of terror forced them to flee with whatever they could carry. the people who live on boston's boyleston street are now coming back like moving on at the scene of the crime. and the man suspected of mailing a ricin laced letter to president obama has been released. his lawyer telling cnn he was set up as another possibly tainted letter arrives at a military base. hello. we're coming to you live from boston where in just the last hour authorities finished reopening the site of the bombings, a six-block stretch of boyleston street, to the people

who live and own businesses there. block by block people were allowed back for the first time in more than a week. like there, it's far from normal. people have to show i.d. to get in and out and the general public is not allowed yet. meanwhile, the surviving boston suspect has been upgraded to fair condition. we've been told he's been communicating with investigators. more on that in a moment. our thoughts remain with the victims of the terrorist attack. four people dead and more people hurt than anyone first understood. the revised injury total is now 264 up from 183 because some people did not realize how badly they were hurt according to health officials. this morning 8-year-old martin richard was laid to rest in a private funeral. the family says it's planning public memorial in the coming weeks. services were held for 29-year-old krystle campbell yesterday, and last night boston university held a vigil for lingzy lu the 23-year-old grad student from china.

and a private funeral today for m.i.t. officer sean collier who was allegedly gunned down by the suspects thursday night. tomorrow m.i.t. will hold a memorial service for him and vice president joe biden will atenld. it is giving people all over the country a way to help in the wake of the boston bombings. whether's $5 or $500,000 like major league baseball donated every little bit is helping those whose lives were forever changed. governor patrick and the boston mayor are making an announcement about the one fund right now. let's listen. >> all of the money will go to victims, none to administrative costs. we thank all of the donors, large benefactors who are represented here behind us, but the thousands of others all over the world who stepped up. and above all and first and foremost, for his vision and his leadership in this and so many

things, mayor menino. >> thank you, governor. thank you all for being with us this afternoon. the individuals behind me are the lead donateors to the one fund. this past week our city triumphed over terror and showed the world the meaning of boston strong. one particular person was on tv and spoke of boston and he said, you picked the wrong city.

that is so true. but as the action of so many, the love and care of so many has really showed how belonged our great city is to people all over the world. as president obama spoke last week, what makes boston such a special unique place? he spoke with a love we all share for each other. he said, we hit the toughest miles as when someone is there to pick us up as we fail, as we fall. last week, many people in our city fell. but so many have rushed forward to help pick each other up. boston holds a special place in everyone's heart. people all over the world share that special boston feeling and it shows.

as a tragic event occurred, the support was overwhelming. in an effort to harness the unbelievable outpouring of generosity all over the world we created the one fund boston. in just over a week, i am proud to announce that the one fund boston has raised $20 million nearly five of that million dollars -- $20 million, $5 million, had been generated by clicks on your computer across the world. it is tremendous and truly amazing. we have about 50,000 donors.

mitch has a bag full of money. we haven't opened that in quite a while. this charitable organization will help those families most affected by monday's tragic events, provide comfort to those who wish to donate to an organization that has experience and know how to do it right and do it right is the most important part of this organization. ken feinberg, who i've known for maine years, i met with him and asked him to help get this support to victims as swiftly as possible. i also asked him to work with victims of families to decide the best way to do this. he will outline a timetable today that accomplishes both goals. i want to thank ken for agreeing to be the administrator of the one fund boston. ken, besides being a good guy,

is a native, a city down in brockton, yeah. and has always displayed outstanding commitment to public service. at one time he was chief of staff for our great senator kennedy. his work in our communities an example to all of us. i cannot imagine a better leader for this important work at this time. i want to also thank all the people who have already committed to one fund boston. the response is more than i could ever have imagined. i'm hopeful for a better tomorrow because of that, your generosity. it is so important we keep those affected by this tragedy our number one priority. i met with the injured last week and again today. i admire the strength and courage. we are here for you. we'll help you move forward.

we'll support you during these difficult times. you need information, we will get it to you. you need connections to each other? we'll help make those connections. we need resources? we'll help direct you to them. when people around the country have reached into their wallets to reach out to you we'll make sure their generosity gets to you right away. we'll get through this together. so i just want to say, i never imagined after this tragedy last monday that generosity of the folks, the business community of boston especially, but around the world i've got many calls from folks who said, we want to be helpful. to raise $20 million in one week is tremendous and i want to say to everyone out there, i thank the media. thank you for the promotion you've also done to help us help those folks. i met with those families this

morning. we'll be there for them. because that's what boston is all about. we're one city committed to making a better city so people don't forget as we go further down the road. thank you very much. now my friend, the guy whose the administrator of this fund, ken feinberg. this is a wonderful guy, let me tell you. we are so lucky to have him. ken feinberg, the administrator of this fund. he said, mayor, i want to be helpful. he's going to be helpful to us as we distribute those funds to the families in need as quickly as possible. thank you very much.

>> first i want to thank the mayor and the governor for their confidence in me. why am i doing this? i'm doing what thousands of people would do if they were asked, i'm sure. i'm doing it because you learn over the years you do not say no to mayor menino and you do not say no to the governor of the commonwealth. when they ask you to do something you do it. this is not the first time i've been asked to administer a fund for victims. every time i do this i say to myself, well, hopefully that will be the last time. and it just isn't the last time. bad things happen to good people every day in this country.

and a fund like this, i am amazed. i am amazed in my experience to see this type of outpouring so quickly in such large amounts after this horrific tragedy. one thing i've learned in all of these funds, and this is the latest example, never under estimate the charitable impulse of the american people. it is astounding to me how americans from all walks of life, from all around the globe really, step up in a time like this and show sort of a national sense of community. it's not just the money. in the past three days, i have been contacted i would say by almost 200 individuals offering

their services, pro bono, volunteer. ken, we just want to help. here's my e-mail. here's my phone. here's my resume. i'm ready. call on me. i'll do whaeter know. i'm ready to serve. it's astounding to me. it certainly reaffirms my faith in the american people, our nation -- as a nation. it's incredible the sense of community shown after 9/11 and virginia tech and these other tragedies and now this horrible tragedy here in boston. now, i just want to highlight in governor have said.mayor and the first week of may, i will be here in boston to hold public two public town hall meetings to hear from the families, to hear from the public, to hear from anybody who wants to come to the

meeting. one will be in the afternoon. the second meeting will be at night for those who work during the day. i want to hear from them. what do they think ought to be done with this money? i want to get as much input, open discussion, very emotional. i want to hear from those families and the public and others who were injured in the attacks. how should we distribute the money? it's not a lot of money when you look at the nature of the injuries, the number of injuries, how you're going to divide this money. it is a wonderful outpouring but it will not make people whole. it can't do that. so how should we allocate limited resources? then we will provide beginning may 15th, next month, a couple weeks, the claim form for anybody who wants to file a claim on behalf of a lost loved one, on behalf of a victim, file the claim.

because we will announce before may 15th, a few days before, a final protocol that will govern issues like eligibility, the calculation of damages, how much you'll receive, how you file a claim, that'll all be posted. it'll be public, and that will be the guiding benchmark that is to how we will go about distributing the funds. beginning may 15th people will have one -- >> we'll break away from this press conference because we have breaking news. a government official tells me the surviving suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev is revealing new details about his motives. a u.s. government official tells me the suspect has cited the wars in afghanistan and iraq as motivating factors in the attack. investigators say he claims they had no contact with any foreign terrorist organization and they were self-radicalized on the internet. the preachings of cleric anwar al awlaki who was killed several

years ago in a drone strike were, quote, likely, unquote, to have been among the videos the brothers watched in this process according to this official. likely. we should add we have no evidence that dzhokhar tsarnaev is telling the truth and the investigators still have to check out the preliminary interviews, but some information is forthcoming. investigators are looking into whether the brothers were influenced by a magazine put out by an al qaeda affiliate, yes, al qaeda has a magazine. but it features articles like how to make a bomb in your mom's kitchen. it is confirmed that the older suspect bought two reloadable mortar kits with 48 shells from a store in new hampshire on february 6th, a law enforcement source tells cnn. that amount alone would not be enough to set off explosions as big as the ones in boston a week and a day ago. the fbi wants to talk to the wife of the older suspects. so far they've only been able to talk to her attorneys who today read a statement.

>> the injuries and loss of life to people who came to celebrate a race and holiday has caused profound distress and sorrow to katy and her family. the reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all. >> i want to bring in our cnn national security analyst. let's talk about ken feinberg who will be the administrator of the one fund $20 million for victims of the boston terrorist attacks. you when you worked at the department of homeland security you worked with feinberg when it came to the bp oil spill and restitution for people in that area. it's a tough job. >> it is. what we're asking him to do is to put a number sign, a dollar sign on misery. and it's an impossible sort of victory. he never wins but he often gets

very close to -- has been terribly successful for a variety of -- he did it for 9/11, madoff, the bp oil spill. he has a couple goals. one is transparency. he is out there talking to the community. those are going to start may 1st here. he is going to listen to the victims about what kind of harms they have both physical and mental. then he'll come up with essentially a template of claims form that gets distributed to anyone in the city or anyone else who may have been harmed and he essentially puts numbers behind them and then decides sort of what is the final number. we've got 20 million right now in the one boston fund. it is a very hard process but there are two points. one is closure of course. >> right. >> that people need to feel whole through money and that is important. but the other is that there is a goal to steer people away from the courtroom. that if you have hundreds of pieces of litigation going on it doesn't add closure and actually ends up pitting people against each other. >> let's talk about the

investigation for one second. cnn broke the news about some of the motivations dzhokhar tsarnaev is discussing in terms of no foreign terrorist groups involved, he and his brother have a jihady world view. is this a surprise to you? >> it hasn't -- i've been saying all along we need to separate the motives from the means. the motives need to -- it appears now and this is just preliminary that the means were all devised here and there are aspects of what happened, the focus on the boston marathon, the fact they lived here, had no exit plan, lots of arsenal on themselves rather than distributed to other terrorist groups that sort of support at least what we're hearing right now from them. separating sort of this motivation, this sort of, you know, radicalization from how did they do it is what the investigators are doing now. what he is saying is consistent with sort of, that they were

motivated by something bigger but they did it through just sort of a home grown training. >> thank you so much. up next a bullet went right through his roommate's desk chair. i'll talk to the bostonian who was uncomfortably close to the gun fight with police. we're waiting to hear the latest from senator dianne feinstein on what the fbi really knew about tamerlan tsarnaev's trip to russia and why it didn't raise red flags in the above the. i've always kept my eye on her... but with so much health care noise, i didn't always watch out for myself. with unitedhealthcare, i get personalized information

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house up there. >> cars were stopped right in front of that pole. it was roughly 75, 80 yards from here. >> reporter: andrew's normally tranquil street erupted into a war zone. the 26-year-old took pictures with his iphone and was live tweeting the gun battle as the tsarnaev brothers were allegedly pinned down by police. he walked us through what he experienced that night. >> i can see the two shooters behind the suv, shooting on -- down laurel street. as soon as i saw the two shooters and saw that gunfire i ran immediately up the stairs to my bedroom on the third floor. i immediately, when i got into the bedroom, jumped on my bed, on my stomach, tried to stay below the windows. then i also got my camera right up against the windows and the glass, continuing to take photos of the shooters and what was happening right in front of my

bedroom window. >> reporter: describe what you're seeing here. >> this is one of the first pictures i took. it was the two shooters that were taking cover behind the black suv and, still, engaging in gunfire and shooting down toward the watertown officers. >> the green sedan is where they had pipe bombs and explosives. >> they were bringing out backpacks so i assume that in those were additional ammunition and explosives. >> reporter: they were both firing? >> both firing, yeah. >> reporter: did you see police on the street? >> yes. i could see all the way down laurel street and see the police vehicles at the end of the block there rncht what was going through your mind when you were taking these pictures? did you know these were the brothers that were wanted? >> not initially. when i first heard the gunshots i had seen the reports about the m.i.t. shooting and that is something that happened there so when i saw gun fire that was

immediately what i thought. i was live tweeting the event and using the hash tags m.i.t. shooting. that's what i thought. >> reporter: you thought it was separate? >> i just wasn't thinking marathon. it didn't come into my mind until they started using explosives. then that's when i knew it was something much more significant and pretty much knew who i was looking at. >> reporter: were you worried for your life? >> at that moment taking pictures i was more just in a state of shock with a lot of adrenalin running through me and combination of shock and curiosity and absolutely just terrified but i guess not enough to stop or get away from the windows. after that larger explosion and there was a smoke cloud on the street, one of the brothers ran toward the officers. >> the older brother. >> and he was running down the

street still engaging in gun fire. ran down the street. as he got closer to the officers he was taken down and as that happened the second -- the other brother got back into the suv, turned it around, and then he started accelerating down the street. >> reporter: 4 1/2 days later adrenalin is still running high on this street. after all, anything could have happened. what point did the bullet go through your roommate's wall and into his chair? >> i don't know. i didn't hear it coming. i was still up in my room. so i did not see when i came in or didn't hear it. i took a picture kind of after the gun fire had stopped. >> reporter: a bullet was fired from that direction where the police were and it went through the second floor here through his calendar through his desk chair and landed on the ground thankfully not hitting any

person. miraculously, no one on laurel street was hurt. tensions on capitol hill have been flaring since the boston bombings. today during a hearing secretary of homeland security janet napolitano took heat from lawmakers who want to know why nothing was done to stop tamerlan tsarnaev even after the government was warned in 2011 that he might represent a threat to national security. tsarnaev reportedly traveled to russia last year. napolitano admitted today that the government had not first taken notice of that trip you -- that the government had at first taken notice of the trip but then dropped the vase. >> was your department aware of his travels to russia? if you weren't, the reason. >> the travel in 2012 that you're referring to. >> yeah. >> yes, the system pinged when he was leaving the united states. by the time he returned all

investigations had been -- the matter had been closed. >> and just a few moments ago i spoke with senator chuck grassley ranking member of the judiciary committee about that exchange. >> when you have a ping like that or an alert like that, that immediately the fbi should have been notified about it, and senator graham brought out today that the fbi didn't know anything about it so you get back to a major problem that we have, does the left hand of government know what the right hand is doing? and if we're going to win this war on terrorism, we've got to have complete cooperation among all the departments that are involved in the war against terrorism. >> do you think the fbi did enough due diligence when they checked out tamerlan tsarnaev? it sounds like they talked to his parents. they checked out his communications, concluded that there was no threat there, but further reporting by reporters

this week indicated that tsarnaev was something of an extremist at least in his views. do you think the fbi did enough in 2011? >> no, i don't think so. i think there's a lot of unanswered questions and we've got to get to the bottom of it. i hope that we do. but you get back to the very same thing. you've got to have these two departments cooperating, and when department of homeland security knew something and they didn't tell the fbi, then that probably is one reason why the fbi didn't go as far as they normally would have gone. >> we know that there have been some closed door intelligence briefings by the fbi explaining to members of congress what went on, what happened when they looked into tamerlan tsarnaev. is that going to be it? or is congress obligated to have open hearings to find out more about this? >> well, i think at least in the

house of representatives you're going to have open hearings on this. and i think it's going to be a major issue when the immigration bill comes up. not because of the boston bombers themselves, but because of the fact that when you only do an immigration bill once every 25 years and everybody knows that the borders aren't secured and terrorists can come into this country and all of the protections aren't in place, it's something we got to do right. >> lastly, snorenator, you have talked about this case in the context of immigration reform. can you point to anything specifically that has happened that would have led to dzhokhar tsarnaev, the remaining living suspect in this incident not becoming a naturalized citizen? is there anything in his background that would have prevented that? >> well, i think that there is

some question about how student visas are given out. there is some question about whether or not there is enough followup on them that would raise questions. that's very important. and also, when the older brother came back from russia he stayed right up to the, almost the last few days of the six months that he could be out of the country coming back. that should have sent a signal. but the most important thing is what's wrong with the system that an alert comes up in the department of homeland security and then in the end the -- not only is the fbi not notified, but there is some question about whether or not that ping would come up again now according to the testimony of the secretary of homeland security. >> all right. senator chuck grassley, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. a poisoned letter addressed

to president obama. now the man who was accused of sending it is set free. we've got the latest in the ricin case. that's next. a new ride comes along and changes everything. the 2013 lexus gs. this is the pursuit of perfection. would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for.

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breaking news on a shocking turn in the investigation into ricin laced letters sent to the white house and to a mississippi senator. we learned a few hours ago the man accused of sending those letters has been released from federal custody as that was unfolding we also learned that another suspicious letter has turned up, this time at an airforce base not far from washington, d.c. first, the latest on the ricin

case. paul kevin kurtis was supposed to appear in court today on charges he sent threatening letters to president obama and other officials but the hearing was canceled abruptly and kurtis was released. his attorney says the case has not been dismissed but she is pushing to get the charges dropped saying her client has been set up. to make all of this even more complicated we're also following reports of yet another suspicious letter. this latest one was found at a mail facility at bolling airforce base in maryland. according to the fbi the letter is being tested for a potential biotoxin. leonard cole is a bioterrorism and terror medicine expert. he joins us now live from new york. dr. cole, investigators are calling it a biotoxin. other than ricin what other sorts of chemicals could they be testing for? >> for this particular mix i'm not sure. there are numerous chemicals as well as potential biological agents. ricin is technically a toxin.

it is a product of a biological agent, namely the castor plant or bean. there is some memory of course of what happened soon after 9/11 when anthrax spores were sent in the mail. that is a purely biological agent. a micro organism and bacteria. if inhaled the spores can kill people at a high likelihood if sufficient numbers of spores are in the air. ricin, less worrisome, but, nevertheless, if it's formed into a fluffy powder, somebody inhales it or ingests it, it can be highly lethal. >> dr. cole, how long might it take before we know what it particular biotoxin is? how long does the test take? the test can be done initially in a few hours but then there are refinements because there

are similarities, not just with other biotoxins or agents that could harm you but also with relatively innocuous or innocent plants or products of plants. so i am sure that a lot of careful testing in sequence will be done to reconfirm whatever the previous assessments have been. it takes -- it could take another day or so, 24-48 hours if we just have a batch newly rereceived, newly suspected and then go through a series of tests before you get an absolute confirmation. >> doctor, if it is ricin, could the properties of the toxin make it easier for investigators to link this letter to the other cases, or does ricin not work that way? >> you mean the other mail ricin cases? >> yes. >> look, there are all kinds of possibilities and i certainly don't have inside information about what is already known. it's possible that more than one

person has decided on his own or her own to purify if they have the ability to some ricin and send it out. so there may be multiple mailers or poisoners in this case or this may all be from one person who has from the very beginning sent out the ricin letters that were first found. now the latest from that same person. and obviously it would mean kevin curtis the person who the fbi had suspected until now would not have been the perpetrator. >> but i guess, dr. cole, what i'm saying is are there particular qualities of ricin so that you could distinguish between one sample of ricin and another sample or is it all just basically homogenous? >> of course from plant to plant you can have variations and mutations in the plant itself but basically ricin is an identified or identifiable product that would be quite similar in its refined form for

purposes of as i say making it into a, quote-unquote, militarized or weaponized form that would be most likely to cause serious illness or death. it would be similar. >> all right. thank you so much. it was supposed to be the finish line. it became instead a crime scene. now boyleston street is opening back up for business. i will talk to a man who witnessed the bombings and fed hungry investigators at the hungry investigators at the crime scene, coming up next. be t time you met. you brought the flex in... as soon as i met fiona and i was describing the problem we were having with our rear brakes, she immediately triaged the situation, knew exactly what was wrong with it, the car was diagnosed properly, it was fixed correctly i have confidence knowing that if i take to ford it's going to be done correctly with the right parts and the right people. get a free brake inspection and brake pads installed for just 49.95 after rebates when you use the ford service credit card. did you tell him to say all of that? no, he's right though...

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welcome back to "the lead" jake tapper live in boston. lives were lost and lives changed forever here but the city is slowly inching back to normal today as business owners, some who witnessed unthinkable horrors, came back to boyleston street to reclaim their shops and clean the streets. joining me now is dan donahue managing director of the hotel

valenis which has served as a sort of command post for investigators at the crime scene. describe what's been going on there. obviously you haven't had normal guests in the last week but a different kind of t. had batche. about an hour ago we opened our doors. the first time for our 113-year-old hotel that we didn't have any guests on monday night. surreal. >> when is the hotel going to be up and running or it now? >> right now. as of 3:00 today. >> we've heard about the emotional toll, the physical toll. not to be crass, how much did it cost you to have the hotel closed or did the special guests take care of the money you would have lost? >> t is yet to be determined. we decided, we are a family owned hotel, third generation bostonians, you know, that was secondary to the task at hand

and taking care of 400 to 500 people a day feeding them each meal. when we came into the hotel on tuesday with the first responders kind of confiscating the hotel and assuming our meeting space we realized these people needed a place to shower and have a meal so we just took over without even having a conversation with any authorities. >> did people sleep there? >> i'll tell you something. the funny thing is no they didn't get to sleep. we saw the same people on tuesday morning and the same clothes wednesday and thursday. they were focused and didn't stop until it was completed friday night. >> you had a special front row seat to the investigation at least out there. it must have been sad -- >> the events of the marathon monday were horrific. more than horrific. they could have taken, they

had -- their intent was to take our spirit away and it did the opposite. it gave us more spirit. watching the first responders come in and deal with the task at hand taking care of the business was phenomenal. they didn't stop. we are hospitality people. we're going to serve when we have the chance, right? we were in our element. they gave us that opportunity to see them, you know, this is the first time when i came to the hotel monday night, the first time we ever met an fbi agent. and, you know, i can tell you i have a new found respect for someone who carries a badge. >> one other interesting thing, you touched on this, the pride you must feel as a bostonian, just i say this as a philadelphian, something of a rival but it is really impressive how this town has banded together, how much people rooted for the police to solve the case, how much people

listened to law enforcement officials. we haven't seen a wave of hate crimes. we haven't seen anything other than the town coming together. >> you know, that's exactly true. i've been in boston for going on seven years and i've always felt boston would be very warm, inviting as a city. when we get back up and running in the next couple days we're going to be nonstoppable. it is a phenomenal city. and the incidence of marathon monday have inspired citizens and more united people. >> best of luck to you and your people. that's the lenox. i appreciate it. we're learning more and more about the tsarnaev brothers but also hearing for the first time from the tsarnaev sisters. they just released the following statement. quote, our heart goes out to the victims of last week's bombing. it saddens us to see so many innocent people hurt after such a callous act. as a family we are absolutely devastated by the sense of loss

and sorrow this has caused. we don't have any answers but we look forward to a thorough investigation and hope to learn more. we ask the media to respect our privacy during this difficult time. that's from the tsarnaev sisters. last week the fbi confiscated one of the sisters' computers from her home in new jersey. coming up we'll introduce you to the wounded warriors who have been visiting with victims of the boston bombings. plus, he was killed in the line of duty today. officer sean collier is being laid to rest. we're learning more about the security guard at m.i.t. who authorities say was gunned down by the tsarnaev brothers. we'll tell you more about his story coming up. [ male announcer ] this is a stunning work of technology. ♪ this is the 2013 lexus es and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. and the first-ever es hybrid. ♪ beep beep what?a score alert ♪if you set your phone to vibrate ♪ ♪ then it might alert your button flies all the ♪

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welcome back to "the lead." i'm jake tapper live in boston. funeral services today for the m.i.t. officer allegedly shot dead by the bombing suspects. the campus of m.i.t. will hold a public memorial for officer sean collier tomorrow. vice president joe biden is expected to attend. we're also learning more about the moment surrounding officer collier's death indicating he may never have known what hit him. our own deborah feyerick has been digging into this for us. this is really one of the empty holes in this mystery. what happened that night. what have you been learning? >> originally some investigators thought that perhaps the officer had seen the two bombing suspects and so they panicked once they saw him but it appears officer sean collier never saw his killers. a source of direct knowledge of this investigation says the m.i.t. officer who was shot to death by the two alleged bombers thursday night did not radio

into dispatch nor did he alert dispatch he was responding to two men who were fitting the description. the officer didn't even have time to activate his emergency alert before being shot five times as he said saturday in his patrol car. the source is telling us it took police nearly 13 minutes to actually get to the downed officer sean collier and that was because other people were calling in to 911 reporting shots fired. the source says it is unclear why the brothers ambushed the m.i.t. officer but according to a source familiar with the timeline of events the suspects walked away from m.i.t. heading east and then carjacked a black suv taking the driver hostage then circling back in the direction they'd just come from past the location of the officer. from there dzhokhar tsarnaev stops at a gas station and bank of america in watertown where he withdraws money and that is soon after that the massive gun fight with police ensues and the older

brother alleged master find fatally wounded in that. it is stunning they would do this to this officer and circle back around in the very direction from which they've come. jake? >> thank you. with the latest on officer sean collier. coming up, they were not injured in the boston terrorist attack but they know what it's like to lose a limb. we will introduce you to the wounded warriors who have been visiting with victims of the boston bombings, coming up next. first kid

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...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. welcome back to "the lead." many of us could not begin to imagine the painful road ahead for victims of the boston bombings but for amputee veterans the pain is all too familiar. now many of those war heroes are going out of their way to show the bombing victims here that while their circumstances have changed their lives are far from over. >> obviously she got hurt. >> reporter: veterans who lost their limbs fighting the wars in iraq and afghanistan are back home offering hope to victims of the boston marathon terrorist attack. >> this doesn't matter. it's just a change of scenery.

>> reporter: celeste corcoran and her 18-year-old daughter sidney were at the boston marathon to cheer on celeste's sister who was running the race for the first time. they were waiting by the finish line when the bombs that would change their lives forever exploded. celeste lost both of her legs. her daughter was wounded by shrapnel. >> i can't do anything right now. >> right now, yes. but i'm telling you, you know, with all my heart you are going to be more independent than you ever were. >> this veteran marine sergeant gabe ramirez is also a double amputee. doctors echo his optimism. >> nearly all of the patients that have lost legs are already walking the halls of physical therapists. we are gearing up for a mass exodus to rehab hopefully in the upcoming week. almost 1600 u.s. troops have lost one or more of their limbs since the beginnings of the war in iraq and afghanistan. lynn lost injuries -- some

service members are even returning back to the combat zone. military medicine has fueled this advancement in prosthetics but it is civilians in boston who will benefit this time. >> this is basically just a start, a new beginning for both of you. >> reporter: celeste is keeping up her spirits. she is talking about running the boston marathon next year. >> i have joked around. i am not super athletic. i like to work out but running has never been my thing because i get horrible shin splints. so hey. i don't have that any more. >> that is the attitude right there. >> family members of the corcorans have set up a website to help the family pay for their medical expenses. they have raised close to 600,000 dollars. you can find more about it on our website. cnn.com/the lead. that's it for me. here in boston i now deliver you into the able hands